junglefacejake
Well-known member
After recently selling my RHD 71 panel van it wasn't long before i was trawling the internet looking for a replacement project.
I am not sure if it is just me but when you have the money burning a hole in your pocket there never seams to be anything suitable.
The search slowly became an obsession. Not wanting to miss any opportunity i was repeatedly checking all the obvious sites every few hours in the hope of catching the latest posts.
It was tedious, looking at the same buses on different sites, reading how the sale was going to "break their hearts". I needed a break. I had been looking on The Samba and realised that if i was happy to import the right bus from the States, why don't i look in Europe? Hey, it was only a language problem!
It wasn't long before i had found a handful of sites that appeared to have a reasonable selection. The combination of these, Euros2Pounds and "Bing Translate" made the search interesting to say the least.
One morning, sitting in my dressing gown, pillow creases still imprinted on my face with the IPad on my lap and a coffee in my hand i lept up off the sofa and excitedly shouted up the stairs "i think I've found it!"
It was for sale on the much loved EBay but the German version. The main picture was a really uninspiring shot of part of the front panel with headlight and indicator
But when i saw the rest of the pictures i couldn't believe how clean and straight it was.
It was by no means perfect but a really great base project. Did i mention how straight it was?
From what i could gather this guy had bought it only 2 weeks previous from the third owner in Austria and had trailered it 760km to Potsdam, East Germany. Previous to that It had been off the road and dry stored for the last 15 years.
Westfalia style windows were added along with a camping interior very early in its life. The picture below shows a page from the original Austrian registration document. As you can see this includes a photograph for identification purposes and this is dated 18th July 1972 although there is a stamp on the picture which has 71 on it?
According to the MPlate It was originally a High Roof Delivery van produced Tuesday 13th January 1970. The original colour is L345 Light Grey
Check out the original rubber tool strap still in tact!
A week after nervously bidding and winning the van we set off with a trailer to Harwich to catch the late night ferry to Hook of Holland. We boarded, had a couple of beers and got our heads down in the cabins. We were woken in the morning by a loud recording of Bobby McFerrin Don’t worry, Be happy blaring from the tanoy. I took this as a sign.
We did plan the possibility of dropping in on the Wolfsburg Museum as we were going right past the junction for it but time was against us.
It was a long, uneventful 695km drive to Potsdam where we met the owner and completed the paperwork. After, we set off following the guy in his 58 beetle to the storage where the van was located.
Now, when you buy a vehicle based on photographs alone there is always a feeling of intrepidation. In this case it was unessessary as it was everything i expected, result!
Once loaded on the trailer it was our plan to make our way as far West as possible before it got too late. We booked a hotel on route and made it to a place called Bad Oeynhausen just West of Hessisch Oldendorf where the famous vintage VW show is held.
Due to the length of our rig we had to adopt an unconventional parking position
The following morning we made the ferry in good time
High Top, stand out from the crowd
I am not sure if it is just me but when you have the money burning a hole in your pocket there never seams to be anything suitable.
The search slowly became an obsession. Not wanting to miss any opportunity i was repeatedly checking all the obvious sites every few hours in the hope of catching the latest posts.
It was tedious, looking at the same buses on different sites, reading how the sale was going to "break their hearts". I needed a break. I had been looking on The Samba and realised that if i was happy to import the right bus from the States, why don't i look in Europe? Hey, it was only a language problem!
It wasn't long before i had found a handful of sites that appeared to have a reasonable selection. The combination of these, Euros2Pounds and "Bing Translate" made the search interesting to say the least.
One morning, sitting in my dressing gown, pillow creases still imprinted on my face with the IPad on my lap and a coffee in my hand i lept up off the sofa and excitedly shouted up the stairs "i think I've found it!"
It was for sale on the much loved EBay but the German version. The main picture was a really uninspiring shot of part of the front panel with headlight and indicator
But when i saw the rest of the pictures i couldn't believe how clean and straight it was.
It was by no means perfect but a really great base project. Did i mention how straight it was?
From what i could gather this guy had bought it only 2 weeks previous from the third owner in Austria and had trailered it 760km to Potsdam, East Germany. Previous to that It had been off the road and dry stored for the last 15 years.
Westfalia style windows were added along with a camping interior very early in its life. The picture below shows a page from the original Austrian registration document. As you can see this includes a photograph for identification purposes and this is dated 18th July 1972 although there is a stamp on the picture which has 71 on it?
According to the MPlate It was originally a High Roof Delivery van produced Tuesday 13th January 1970. The original colour is L345 Light Grey
Check out the original rubber tool strap still in tact!
A week after nervously bidding and winning the van we set off with a trailer to Harwich to catch the late night ferry to Hook of Holland. We boarded, had a couple of beers and got our heads down in the cabins. We were woken in the morning by a loud recording of Bobby McFerrin Don’t worry, Be happy blaring from the tanoy. I took this as a sign.
We did plan the possibility of dropping in on the Wolfsburg Museum as we were going right past the junction for it but time was against us.
It was a long, uneventful 695km drive to Potsdam where we met the owner and completed the paperwork. After, we set off following the guy in his 58 beetle to the storage where the van was located.
Now, when you buy a vehicle based on photographs alone there is always a feeling of intrepidation. In this case it was unessessary as it was everything i expected, result!
Once loaded on the trailer it was our plan to make our way as far West as possible before it got too late. We booked a hotel on route and made it to a place called Bad Oeynhausen just West of Hessisch Oldendorf where the famous vintage VW show is held.
Due to the length of our rig we had to adopt an unconventional parking position
The following morning we made the ferry in good time
High Top, stand out from the crowd
